The 3rd Naval Region is entrusted with firmly managing and defending sovereignty over seas and islands and conducting search and rescue within its areas of responsibility, which are large waters with complex developments and severe climate and hydrography. On deeply perceiving these conditions, the Naval Region Party Committee and Command attach constant importance to enhancing combat readiness and search and rescue by means of synchronous, effective solutions, serving as a reliable fulcrum for fishermen’s operations at sea.
The most important factor that helps to improve combat readiness and search and rescue is to raise officers’ and soldiers’ awareness of missions, willpower, and political responsibility. The Naval Region directs its subordinate departments and units to promote political education, most notably about instructions and resolutions of the Central Military Commission and Ministry of National Defence (MND) on struggle to protect sovereignty over seas and islands. Attention is paid to clarifying schemes and ruses of foreign countries, accurately perceiving partners of cooperation and objects of struggle, and deeply grasping positions of our Party and State on the resolution of sovereign dispute at sea and islands as well as missions of the Navy and Naval Region, thereby enabling officers and soldiers to foster proper understanding of their tasks and attitude towards combat readiness and search and rescue. This will help to raise their vigilance, improve their political steadfastness, and promote their confidence, willpower, and responsibility during mission performance as well as make the Naval Region into a unitary whole in terms of willpower and action, proactively and creatively overcoming difficulties to accomplish assigned tasks.
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| PK 16 firing practice |
On the basis of unified awareness, determination and responsibility to missions, party committees and commanders at all levels have a thorough grasp of their higher echelons’ resolutions, directions, and orders and carry out comprehensive maintenance of forces and equipment on readiness. Departments and units are to timely develop, adjust, and perfect their operational documents and well prepare forces to be ready for mobilisation. They also regularly practise concepts of operations and conduct exercises to enhance coordination among themselves and with units of the Self Defence – Air Force, thus improving soldiers’ fighting skills and capabilities in accordance with demands of maritime operations. Departments and units of the Naval Region are requested to proactively collaborate and coordinate with local authorities and armed forces to have a good grasp of political and security situation, social order and safety in their deployment areas. Investment in surveillance cameras, routine patrol and guard, and enforcement of military discipline serve to keep departments and units absolutely safe and secure.
In the context of new, complex developments at sea, the Naval Region attaches importance to renewing methods of developing situation awareness, improving analysis and recapitulation, correctly forecasting, and evaluating situations, early discovering activities of navies in key areas to timely advise the Navy Party Committee’s Standing Board and Command and directly respond to situations in an effective manner without falling into passivity and surprise. Having grasped our Party’s and State’s position on “resolutely, persistently” settling issues at sea, the Naval Region requests forces operating at sea to demonstrate their proactiveness and creativeness during mission performance, work out plans to struggle in accordance with our policies, and wisely, resolutely, timely handle situations without letting foreign countries fabricate issues to use as a pretext for causing conflict and further complicating situations, firmly protecting sovereignty over waters and contributing to preserving a peaceful environment at sea and relationships with neighbouring countries in the region. It is necessary to closely collaborate and coordinate with higher echelon’s departments and friendly units to establish a firm and interconnected posture, which is capable of bringing into play the overall power and diversifying forms of struggle to firmly protect national sovereignty and interests in waters and islands within their area of responsibility. Through working practice, the Naval Region actively studies and proactively proposes many concrete solutions, which contributes to building a strong all-people national defence posture in association with people’s security posture at sea. Additionally, it leverages the role of fishermen in safeguarding sovereignty over seas and islands, actively exchanges information on security situation at sea with them, and encourages the fishermen to put out to sea for economic development in connection with protecting sovereignty and maritime security. Consequently, the fishermen provided a great deal of information about sovereignty violations of foreign vessels in the years of 2019 and 2020, which enabled the Naval Region to effectively deal with these violations.
Training quality is the main factor that directly contributes to creating combat strength and readiness of units. On grasping this importance, the Naval Region focuses on leading quality improvement according to the motto of “basics, practicality, steadiness” and takes the missions of firmly safeguarding sovereignty over seas and islands of the Homeland and making the Naval Region and Service revolutionary, regular, highly-skilled, and modern as the objectives of training. Special importance is attached to both comprehensive training with the aim of improving officers’ and soldiers’ standard in every aspect and intensive training, closely mirroring operational concepts, opponents, and theatre of war in line with organisation, staffing, weapons, and equipment. Given the position that cadres are key to enhancing training quality, the Naval Region always pays attention to cultivating its corps of cadres and updating them on new developments, intentions, and activities of foreign countries in the waters and islands within their area of responsibility. Therefore, cadres’ training management standard and capacity for handling situations are greatly promoted.
In addition, the Naval Region makes breakthroughs in renewing training management. Training is clearly devolved to various levels and coordinated between departments and units. Training content and time are clearly specified for learners in each training item. Basic training is combined with advanced training, thus taking learners from simplicity to complexity, from easiness to difficulty, from segmentation to synthesisation. Examination and evaluation are conducted seriously and intrinsically. Safety in training is always at the forefront of the Naval Region. Besides, training work is closely linked to strengthening of good order and discipline, fitness training and sport activities in units. Consequently, the Naval Region always completes all the training content and time with over 98% of its staffing. Soldiers’ professional skills and ability to use weapons and technical equipment are on the rise. Results of exercise, general tactical examination, and live firing are graded as good. Good results have been also seen in competitions held by the MND and Navy. Every year, one or two regiments or brigades and from four to five squadron-level or battalion-level units and equivalents of the Naval Region are awarded the Good Training Unit Flag. This has made a vital contribution to improving combat readiness and combat strength of the Naval Region, meeting the requirements for controlling and safeguarding sovereignty over seas and islands in the new situation.
Regarding natural disaster prevention and response and search and rescue as “combat missions in peacetime,” the Naval Region always takes initiative in conducting natural disaster prevention and response and search and rescue in a serious, thorough, synchronous manner with high resolution. To perform missions in waters frequently affected by storms and increasingly complex developments of weather, climate, and hydrography as a result of climate change in recent years, officers and soldiers of the Naval Region have confronted many difficulties or even risked their lives when undertaking search and rescue activities. The Naval Region regularly educates soldiers to raise their awareness and foster their determination and valiant spirit of sacrifice for the sake of task accomplishment. Every year, prior to storm season, the Naval Region requests its departments and units to review and amend plans for natural disaster prevention and response and search and rescue; constantly monitor and grasp developments of storms to timely strengthen organisation and staffing of mobile forces; carefully prepare forces and equipment to carry out the tasks of natural disaster prevention and response and search and rescue in any situations. Departments and units strictly comply with directives and orders, maintain a system of people on duty, and make good preparations in terms of men and materials with a view to minimising losses and ensuring absolute safety of life and vessels involved in operations. The Naval Region has rescued 33 ships with 300 seafarers and fishermen and provided first aid to 14 fishermen since 2015. In 2020, given the concurrence of storms, the Naval Region collaborated and coordinated closely with coastal provinces and cities to conduct natural disaster response and search and rescue; participated in rescuing 8 sailors aboard Vietship-01 at Cua Viet, Quang Tri Province; successfully assisted 11 fishermen aboard QNg 94625 TS, 8 fishermen aboard QNg 91756 TS drifting at sea, etc., contributing to reducing loss of life and damage to property of the state, military, and people. After storms, the party committees and commanders of departments and units actively engage in helping localities and people to overcome the aftermath and early stabilise their lives; make regular patrols to monitor fishing grounds and serve as a reliable fulcrum for fishermen’s operations at sea.
Thanks to adopting comprehensive, effective solutions, given its sense of responsibility and high resolution, the 3rd Naval Region taps on its leading role in managing and firmly safeguarding the Homeland’s sovereignty over seas and islands as well as in search and rescue, contributing to building safe waters and promoting maritime economy in the new situation.
Rear Admiral Pham Van Hung, Chief of Naval Region